


Blooming Period

by koutarous



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, No Dialogue, Unrequited Love, descriptions of gore i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 07:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16698055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koutarous/pseuds/koutarous
Summary: Sunwoo begins coughing up rose petals.





	Blooming Period

**Author's Note:**

> i wanted to write a hanahaki au, a no dialogue fic, and a boyz fic. so i decided to do all 3 at once

Kim Sunwoo is 18 years old when the first petal comes out.

The clock on his bedside table reads 3:49 AM. His eyes shoot open as the coughs increase in intensity, forcing him awake. This feels different than any time he’s had a cold- It feels as though something is caught in his throat. Still coughing, he shuffles down the hall to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. He tilts his head and crouches down to drink from the stream of water coming from the tap. It doesn’t make him feel any better- the coughs are still coming. They keep coming, no matter how much he coughs, and no matter how much he drinks.

Sunwoo wonders if he’ll die here, on cool tile of the bathroom in the dorm, wearing an old t-shirt he got from a resort his family visited in the 6th grade. 

Over the course of what feels to be hours, gags start to mix in with the cough. Sunwoo is  _ tired,  _ he wants to go back to bed, and he wants to stop coughing. His stomach lurches, and he pales looking in the sink.

It’s red, and covered in a mixture of saliva and mucous. Sunwoo wonders if it came from a rose. He’d always liked roses- his mother had kept a bush in her garden back home. Though after so many years away, he figured it must be gone now.

The coughing and gagging is over tonight- but Sunwoo knows that in the grander scheme of things, it's just begun. He runs the water for a few minutes, just to make sure he’s gotten rid of any evidence. 

He doesn’t go back to sleep.

 

Over the next couple of weeks, more and more petals (and the scattered thorn) come up. 

It’s only after a month of midnight fits that he’s caught in the bathroom, shaking on the floor, with a blood and mucous covered thorn caught on his mouth. 

Jacob promises not to tell a soul, but begs Sunwoo to just  _ tell her,  _ or get the surgery. 

But Sunwoo knows that he hasn’t fallen in love with a  _ her _ , nor does he want to jeopardize his and his group mate’s careers. So he keeps his mouth shut (at least when he’s not coughing), and carries on.

 

It doesn’t take anyone long to figure out what's happening after Haknyeon finds a shriveled up, blood-stained petal on Sunwoo’s pillow. He confronts him later that night, whispering from the top bunk that he knows a secret- that he knows why Sunwoo runs out of their room every night. He reassures Sunwoo that it’ll be all right, that he can get the surgery, but wonders why he won’t just  _ tell  _ whoever it is, because  _ they’re sure to like him back _ . Sunwoo lets out a bitter laugh at that, and tells Haknyeon that he doesn't want to risk a dating scandal, and that even if they did learn to love him, being in love and being an idol doesn’t mix.  _ Especially _ when they’re a member of your own group. 

Haknyeon doesn’t press it after that, and the two lay in silence for the rest of the night.

 

Sunwoo had lasted longer than he thought he would without being found out. He didn’t think he’d make it through 6 months, including a promotion period and preparations for a new comeback, before the other members found out.

Unfortunately for Sunwoo, the slow, painful timeline of the disease doesn’t make the stares from the others any easier. He has to stop recording, one day, due to a coughing fit. He’s done it more than enough times before, and he doesn't even think before running out and pulling the petal from the back of his throat. Their manager doesn’t like that.

He’s told he has two options: leave the group, or get the surgery. Sunwoo knows that they’re just being reasonable, and that he shouldn’t have even let it get to this point. He knows that the one causing this pain will never feel the same way, and he knows that even if he did, they could never be together. But he doesn’t want to forget- to give up the feelings for who he loves.

He also doesn’t want to give up  _ what _ he loves.

Unfortunately for Sunwoo, the universe won’t let him have both.

 

They all have a meeting, before Sunwoo gets the operation done. They’re sitting on the floor of the practice room. No managers, no stylists, just the members. They go around the circle and talk about how they wish Sunwoo would’ve told them earlier, how he didn’t need to keep it a secret. They tell him how this is better for him, better for  _ them,  _ how he won’t be in any more pain, and how when he recovers they’ll have a comeback right away. Haknyeon promises that he’ll keep their room clean (Sunwoo doubts that one), and they all promise to wait for him. It ends with a lot of hugging and tears, and Sunwoo begins to believe that the surgery may in fact be the best option for him.

That night, Sunwoo deletes almost every picture on his phone. He doesn’t realize he’s crying, sobbing even, until he hears someone walking down the hallway. He wipes his face with his sleeves and shuts off his phone. He’s not sure how he can even feel embarrassment at this point, with the rest of the boys all knowing he’s had an unrequited crush for over 6 months. 

The door creaks open, and Jacob climbs up on his bed, sitting next to him, pulling him into his chest and putting an arm around him. Sunwoo feels awkward, his tears soaking through the former’s pajama shirt. But he also feels warmth, and he knows he won’t get to feel this way after the surgery, so he doesn’t mind embarrassing himself, if only tonight.

Sunwoo pulls away after a while, pressing a chaste kiss to Jacob’s forehead. 

Jacob decides it's his turn to cry, at that point.

 

Kim Sunwoo is 19 years old when he wakes up in a hospital bed. The warm, orange light of sunrise filters in through the blinds, bringing colour to the otherwise white, sterile, empty room.

Even the flowers on his bedside table are white roses. There’s a rosary that’s been put around his neck while he was out. He wonders who brought them- the flowers and the rosary. Sunwoo’s never been too religious, but he’s thankful to whoever brought them. They looked old and worn- he thinks they must’ve meant a lot to someone.

He doesn’t think he regrets the surgery. Though it got rid of the thorns in his throat, and the petals that clung to his insides, he can still remember the pain they brought. The late night coughing, the weariness, the blood, the cold tiling on the floor. But the one pain he can’t remember is the heartache.

Looking back, he couldn’t fathom the idea of enduring it all. Though he supposes that’s the point of the surgery, right? Regardless, he couldn’t help but be curious. The doctors did tell him most people are. It’s troubling, to have part of our memories, part of our  _ heart,  _ taken away from us. All he knows is that he loved someone very much.  _ Too  _ much, actually. For who would suffer so much pain? Who would bleed? Who would let another take root in him, in his lungs, in his throat, and in his heart? 

Whoever that someone was, he couldn’t help but hope that he had loved them well, in the time that he did.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on twitter @dykeyeom hehe.... thank you for reading <333


End file.
